Baseball
Cougars Drop Weekend Finale 9-3; Takes Series Over Northeastern

Northeastern tallied 14 hits off seven Houston pitchers on Sunday

Frankie Ratcliff led Houston with two hits and an RBI
 
Frankie Ratcliff led Houston with two hits and an RBI
  
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HEADLINES
C-USA Baseball Championship Schedule Set; Cougars to Play as No. 6 Seed

Baseball Drops Home Finale Heartbreaker, 6-5, to Southern Miss

Cougars Win No. 35 and Take Series Over Southern Miss with 7-5 Victory

Feb. 17, 2013

Final Stats |  Gallery  | Box Score

HOUSTON -- The University of Houston baseball team dropped its series finale, 9-3, on Sunday to Northeastern, but garnered the series win after taking two of three from the Huskies on Opening Weekend at Cougar Field.

FINAL
Northeastern
(1-2)		 9   Houston
(2-1)		 3

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Northeastern 1 0 1 0 1 0 2 4 0 9 14 3
Houston 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 3 9 3

W: Kevin Ferguson (1-0)
L: Daniel Poncedeleon (0-1)

PITCHING

Houston IP H R ER BB SO
Daniel Poncedeleon 5.0 7 3 2 1 7
Daniel Smith 0.2 1 0 0 0 1
Ryan Bonnot 0.0 0 0 0 1 0
Grant Slaughter 0.1 1 2 1 1 0
Dylan Rucker 1.1 3 3 3 1 0
Tyler Ford 0.2 2 1 1 0 0
Logan Piper 1.0 0 0 0 0 1
Northeastern IP H R ER BB SO
Kevin Ferguson 6.0 5 1 1 2 3
Mike Fitzgerald 1.1 3 1 0 0 0
Dylan Maki 1.2 1 1 1 2 1

BATTING

Houston AB R H RBI BB SB
Frankie Ratcliff 5 1 2 1 0 0
Caleb Barker 2 0 1 1 0 0
Josh Vidales 4 1 1 0 1 1
Kyle Survance 1 1 1 0 0 0
Justin Montemayor 2 0 1 0 1 0

NUMBERS OF NOTE

5 Five freshmen (Justin Montemayor, Josh Vidales, Ashford Fulmer, Jacob Campbell, and Kyle Kirk) all had hits for the Cougars.

6 Six different relievers saw action for Houston.

7 Junior starter Daniel Poncedeleon registered seven strikeouts in five innings of work in his season debut.

8 Eight different batters for the Cougars had hits in the ballgame.


Despite stringing together a run in the last three innings, Houston wasn't able to overcome its early 5-0 deficit, falling to 2-1 on the year.
The Cougars posted nine hits for the third straight game, but Northeastern's bats came alive, tallying 14 off of a combined seven Houston pitchers.
 
Leading the way offensively for the Cougars was junior Frankie Ratcliff (2x5, R, RBI) with a multi-hit game, which included a run and RBI. Junior Caleb Barker (1x5, R, RBI) garnered the other lone RBI on his single in the eighth inning.
 
Contributing with base hits were freshman Josh Vidales (1x4, R, BB), junior Jonathan Davis (1x3), freshmen Kyle Survance (1x3, R), Justin Montemayor (1x2, BB), Kyle Kirk (1x2), and Ashford Fulmer (1x4).
 
The Huskies went up 3-0 after five frames on seven hits off of junior Daniel Poncedeleon. The La Mirada, Calif. native, fanned seven in just 5.0 innings of work, allowing to earned runs and one walk - suffering the loss in Sunday's finale.
 
Northeastern's starter Kevin Ferguson (6.0,5,1,1,2,3) held Houston hitters in check for much of the afternoon, holding the Cougars to just one hit, an infield single off the bat of Fulmer through the first three innings with a total of just five hits through six frames.
 
The Cougars plated their first run, down 5-0, in the seventh after Davis and Montemayor reached on singles. Pinch runner and freshman Survance scored on an errant throw to make it a 5-1 game.
 
A four-run eighth by Northeastern extended Houston's deficit late. The Cougars played a run in the eighth on a Barker RBI-single, while Vidales scored on a Ratcliff single in the ninth for the Cougars third run.
 
Seeing their season debuts out of the bullpen were junior Daniel Smith, senior Ryan Bonnot, freshman Grant Slaughter, junior Dylan Rucker and sophomore Logan Piper, while junior Tyler Ford made his second appearance of the season.
 
POST-GAME QUOTES
Head Coach Todd Whitting
On the today's loss
"We learned an extremely valuable lesson for a young ball club. You have to come out and play every day. I sensed after the first two games that we were patting ourselves on the back a little bit. I've been warning the team for two days, after Friday's game and yesterday, if you didn't come out ready to play that team was going to kick our rear. It basically came down to they wanted to win the game more than we did. I can't say enough about that team in the other dugout. They played extremely hard for three days, and that's a really good team. They have a couple players that any Division I team in the country would take."

On going into Tuesday's game at Sam Houston State
"We have to regroup. It's just one game, not the end of our season. This is a great learning experience for us, and we'll see how we bounce back against Sam Houston."

SINGLE-GAME TICKETS
Single-game tickets begin as low as $6 for youth and $8 for adults in general admission seating (Level 200) and as low as $8 for youth and $10 for adults in reserved seating (Level 100). Premium games for the Cougars will include the Baylor-New Orleans weekend, which runs from March 15-17, Texas on March 19 and the Rice series on April 19-21. Premium games begin as low as $8 for youth and $10 for adults in general admission seating (Level 200) and as low as $12 for youth and $15 for adults in reserved seating (Level 100).

STAY CONNECTED
Stay up to date with all Houston Baseball news and highlights by following us on Twitter @UHCougarBB or on Facebook at /HoustonCougarBaseball. Fans can also follow head coach Todd Whitting @toddwhitting on Twitter.

UP NEXT
Houston will make its first road trip of 2013 when it travels to Huntsville, Texas for a 6:30 pm start at Sam Houston State. The Cougars and Bearkats met twice a year ago, each earning a win.


 

 

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